Antibiotic resistance in aquaculture has emerged as a global crisis, representing a serious threat to the health of aquatic animals, environment, and human. The extensive use of antibiotics in aquaculture has led to rapid development of resistant bacterial strains, resulting in environmental contamination and the dissemination of resistant genes. Understanding of the research trends, key contributors, and thematic evolution of this field is essential for guiding future studies and policy interventions. The study aimed to conduct a bibliometric analysis of research on antibiotic resistance development in aquaculture, identifying key areas of research, leading contributors, emerging challenges, and alternative solutions. Data were extracted from the Web of Science (WoS) database covering the period from 2000 to 2025. A systematic search strategy was employed, utilizing terms including “antibiotic resistance” AND “bacteria,” AND “aquaculture”. Relevant publications were extracted from the WoS using these keywords. R-tool was then used to analyze the obtained metadata including keywords, citation patterns, and co-authored country. The analysis revealed a remarkable increase in publications over the past 25 years, with key contributions from China, India, and the USA. The most significant articles focused on the presence of multidrug resistant bacteria in the aquatic environments and, antibiotic-resistant genes, and horizontal gene transfer. Probiotics are the alternative solution to overcome the antibiotic resistance and enhance aquaculture sustainability. Future research should focus on the interdisciplinary collaboration, novel antimicrobial alternatives, and global monitoring approaches.

Mabroom dates (Phoenix dactylifera L.) are recognized as one of the most important crops in Qatar. Fresh fruit dates are susceptible to mould and post-harvest spoilage, resulting in a significant financial loss. Octanoic fatty acid (OFA) has been shown to regulate the growth of mould-causing organisms such as fungi and bacteria. It is known to have antibacterial properties. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the in vitro effect of OFA on the post-harvest pathogens of Mabroom fruits. Fresh, apparently healthy, and fully ripe Mabroom dates were obtained from the National Agriculture and Food Corporation (NAFCO). The chosen fruits were packed in sterile, well-ventilated plastic boxes and transported to the lab under controlled conditions. The fruits were distributed into five groups (G1 to G5). The groups G1, G2, and G3 received 1%, 2%, and 3.5% OFA, respectively, while G4 was left untreated and G5 was washed only with tap water as a positive control treatment. Each group contained 200 g of fresh and healthy semi-soft dates. The samples were then dried and incubated in a humidity chamber at 25 °C ± 2 for seven days. The signs and symptoms of decay were monitored and recorded. The presence of pathogens was confirmed via phenotypic and microscopic-based methods. The results showed a significant difference (p ≤ 0.05) among the groups. OFA at 3.5% had the strongest inhibitory action against post-harvest pathogens, followed by OFA2%. However, there were no differences (p ≤ 0.05) between OFA1% and the control groups. Aspergillus spp., Penicillium spp., Rhizopus spp., and Botrytis spp. were most abundant in the control group, followed by OFA2% and OFA1%, respectively. In conclusion, octanoic fatty acid at 3.5% may improve the quality of date fruits through its high antimicrobial activity, reduce the effect of post-harvest decay, minimize the loss of date fruits during storage, and improve the sustainability of date fruits. Further experiments are necessary to confirm the effectiveness of OFA as a green solution for sustainable date fruit production.

Early blight disease caused by Alternaria sp. is one of the most devastating diseases of Solanaceous crops widely distributed in Sudan. The aim of this study was to determine the genetic variation among different Alternaria isolates recovered from different Solanaceae crops showing typical symptoms of early blight disease. Infected leaves of tomato, potato, eggplant and pepper were collected from different geographical zones in Sudan. The recovered fungal isolates were identified to the genus level based on cultural and morphological characteristics. Five representative isolates were sent to the CABI Bioscience, U.K. for confirmation. The genetic relationship among the isolates was determined using the amplified fragments length polymorphism (AFLP) technique and the generated data were used to create similarity matrices using the PAST 3.01 software package. Dendrograms were constructed based on Jaccard's similarity coefficients. A total of 70 fungal isolates was recovered from the tested plants and all of them showed morphological characteristics typical of Alternaria spp. The conidia appeared in multiple-branched chains with spore sizes in the range of 2.38-13.09 μm × 12.30-43.63 μm. Therefore, the isolates were identified as Alternaria alternata (Fr.) Keissl. The identification was then confirmed by CABI.AFLPbased dendrogram which revealed five clusters with a significant cophenetic correlation coefficient (r = 0.834) between the dendrogram and the original similarity matrix irrespective of their geographical origins. Eighteen (75%) of the Alternaria isolated from tomato leaves were clustered together in cluster I and five isolates formed two separate clusters, viz. cluster IV (T-Kh5 and T-H1) and cluster V (T-H4 and T-Med2). The remaining isolate, T-Am5, grouped with one of the potato isolates in cluster III. The other isolates which were recovered from potato, pepper and eggplants were all separated from the tomato isolates in the largest cluster.

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is an economically important crop in Sudan, and symptoms of decline may be associated with diverse and poorly understood fungal communities. An unclassified agaricoid fungus was consistently isolated from basidiomata occurring on or near symptomatic date palms in an orchard in Khartoum State, Sudan. Affected palms exhibited chlorosis, reduced growth, drooping fronds, progressive browning, and desiccation. Six isolates (A–F) were examined based on their morphological characteristics and ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 sequences. Unlike the poroid basidiomata typical of Ganoderma, the isolates produced mushroom-like basidiomata with gills and a stipe. Several morphological characteristics also differed from the typical description of Hohenbuehelia, particularly the centrally positioned stipe and the free or narrowly adnate lamellae. BLASTn analysis showed only 83–89% ITS sequence identity with available Hohenbuehelia sequences. In the present ITS dataset, isolates A–F formed a strongly supported monophyletic group (bootstrap values of 99–100%) outside the sampled Hohenbuehelia and Ganoderma sequences. These results help clarify the phylogenetic position of the isolates within the taxa included in the current dataset but are insufficient for formal genus-level classification or the recognition of a new taxon. Furthermore, following 12 months of artificial inoculation, no consistent disease symptoms were observed, and the causal agents of date palm decline could not be determined. This study reports an unidentified agaricoid fungus associated with declining date palms and highlights the need for broader sampling of Agaricales, multilocus phylogenetic analyses, detailed morphological characterization, and carefully controlled pathogenicity tests before its taxonomic identity and ecological significance can be established.

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is an economically important crop in Sudan, and symptoms of decline may be associated with diverse and poorly understood fungal communities. An unclassified agaricoid fungus was consistently isolated from basidiomata occurring on or near symptomatic date palms in an orchard in Khartoum State, Sudan. Affected palms exhibited chlorosis, reduced growth, drooping fronds, progressive browning, and desiccation. Six isolates (A–F) were examined based on their morphological characteristics and ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 sequences. Unlike the poroid basidiomata typical of Ganoderma, the isolates produced mushroom-like basidiomata with gills and a stipe. Several morphological characteristics also differed from the typical description of Hohenbuehelia, particularly the centrally positioned stipe and the free or narrowly adnate lamellae. BLASTn analysis (v. 2.17.0) showed only 83–89% ITS sequence identity with available Hohenbuehelia sequences. In the present ITS dataset, isolates A–F formed a strongly supported monophyletic group (bootstrap values of 99–100%) outside the sampled Hohenbuehelia and Ganoderma sequences. These results help clarify the phylogenetic position of the isolates within the taxa included in the current dataset but are insufficient for formal genus-level classification or the recognition of a new taxon. Furthermore, following 12 months of artificial inoculation, no consistent disease symptoms were observed, and the causal agents of date palm decline could not be determined. This study reports an unidentified agaricoid fungus associated with declining date palms and highlights the need for broader sampling of Agaricales, multilocus phylogenetic analyses, detailed morphological characterization, and carefully controlled pathogenicity tests before its taxonomic identity and ecological significance can be established.